38. But in the meantime let
us grant, in submission to your ideas, that Christ was one of
us—similar in mind, soul, body, weakness, and condition; is He
not worthy to be called and to be esteemed God by us, in consideration
of His bounties, so numerous as they are? For if you have placed
in the assembly33013301
So all edd., except those of Hildebrand and Oehler, for the
ms.censum—“list.” of the gods
Liber, because he discovered the use of wine; Ceres, because she
discovered the use of bread; Æsculapius, because he discovered the
use of herbs; Minerva, because she produced the olive; Triptolemus,
because he invented the plough; Hercules, because he overpowered and
restrained wild beasts and robbers, and water-serpents of many
heads,—with how great distinctions is He to be honoured by us,
who, by instilling His truth into our hearts, has freed us from great
errors; who, when we were straying everywhere, as if blind and without
a guide, withdrew us from precipitous and devious paths, and set our
feet on more smooth places; who has pointed out what is especially
profitable and salutary for the human race; who has shown us what God
is,33023302 That
is, that God is a Spirit. [Note our author’s spirit of
faith in Christ.] who He is, how
great and how good; who has permitted and taught us to conceive and to
understand, as far as our limited capacity can, His profound and
inexpressible depths; who, in His great kindness, has caused it to be
known by what founder, by what Creator, this world was established and
made; who has explained the nature of its origin33033303
Orelli would refer these words to God; he thinks that with those
immediately following they may be understood of God’s spiritual
nature,—an idea which he therefore supposes Arnobius to assert
had never been grasped by the heathen. and essential substance, never before
imagined in the conceptions of any; whence generative warmth is added
to the rays of the sun; why the moon, always uninjured33043304
So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the corrupt
reading of the ms., idem ne quis;
but possibly both this and the preceding clause have crept into the
text from the margin, as in construction they differ from the rest of
the sentence, both that which precedes, and that which follows. in her motions,
is believed to alternate her light and her obscurity from intelligent
causes;33053305 The
phrase animalibus causis is regarded by commentators as equal to
animatis causis, and refers to the doctrine of the Stoics, that
in the sun, moon, stars, etc., there was an intelligent nature, or a
certain impulse of mind, which directed their movements. what is the
origin of animals, what rules regulate seeds; who designed man himself,
who fashioned him, or from what kind of material did He compact the
very build of bodies; what the perceptions are; what the soul, and
whether it flew to us of its own accord, or whether it was generated
and brought into existence with our bodies themselves; whether it
sojourns with us, partaking of death, or whether it is gifted with an
endless immortality; what condition awaits us when we shall have
separated from our bodies relaxed in death; whether we shall retain our
perceptions,33063306 Lit.
“shall see”—visuri, the reading of the
ms.; changed in the first ed. and others
to victuri—“shall live.” or have no
recollection of our former sensations or of past memories;33073307
Some have suggested a different construction of these
words—memoriam nullam nostri sensus et recordationis
habituri, thus—“have no memory of ourselves and senses
of recollection;” but that adopted above is simpler, and does not
force the words as this seems to do. who has
restrained33083308
The ms. and 1st and 2d Roman edd.
read, qui constringit—“who
restrains.” our
arrogance, and has caused our necks, uplifted with pride, to
acknowledge the measure of their weakness; who hath shown that we are
creatures imperfectly formed, that we trust in vain expectations, that
we understand nothing thoroughly, that we know nothing, and that we do
not see those things which are placed before our eyes; who has guided
us from false superstitions to the true religion,—a blessing
which exceeds and transcends all His other gifts; who has raised our
thoughts to heaven from brutish statues formed of the vilest clay, and
has caused us to hold converse in thanksgiving and prayer with the Lord
of the universe.

3301
So all edd., except those of Hildebrand and Oehler, for the
ms.censum—“list.”

3302 That
is, that God is a Spirit. [Note our author’s spirit of
faith in Christ.]

3303
Orelli would refer these words to God; he thinks that with those
immediately following they may be understood of God’s spiritual
nature,—an idea which he therefore supposes Arnobius to assert
had never been grasped by the heathen.

3304
So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the corrupt
reading of the ms., idem ne quis;
but possibly both this and the preceding clause have crept into the
text from the margin, as in construction they differ from the rest of
the sentence, both that which precedes, and that which follows.

3305 The
phrase animalibus causis is regarded by commentators as equal to
animatis causis, and refers to the doctrine of the Stoics, that
in the sun, moon, stars, etc., there was an intelligent nature, or a
certain impulse of mind, which directed their movements.

3306 Lit.
“shall see”—visuri, the reading of the
ms.; changed in the first ed. and others
to victuri—“shall live.”

3307
Some have suggested a different construction of these
words—memoriam nullam nostri sensus et recordationis
habituri, thus—“have no memory of ourselves and senses
of recollection;” but that adopted above is simpler, and does not
force the words as this seems to do.